Phoenix Gold Phorum

1991 as a personal hobby.

1996 as a professional.

1994 personal -fantasied only (no $)
1995 first PG amps (M44 and 100)
1999 professionally installed
2004 retired from professional installing

Always liked Car Audio growing up as a kid becuase my brother was into it (Phoenix Gold Pioneer and Image Dynamics were his brands)

Always read up on car audio from age 16.

19 now, bought my first car in November 2006 and have been reading up on it basically everyday and still dont know shit compared to most of you on here.

I have all my components right now (Pioneer and Phoenix Gold ) Just waiting on the wires and I'll have my first system.

I think its a pretty damn good first system.

1992-first system in a 1986 Monte Carlo. Couple of Sparkomatic bass tubes and a pair of 6x9's
alot of other cheap stuff inbetween

2005 started wanting a system again
2007 dream may actually become a reality

91 first syst was KRC 310 or 610 kinda fuzzy on the model # it was a pull out.


Boss AVA 650

2 pioneer 8 inch free airs mounted in some gutted sas tubes from a pawn shop. they sat in front of the seats.

and pioneer 4x10 in the dash


ahh good times........

now I am rocking a small wad o cash and the factory monsoon ... ahhh i miss the good times...

1975 - 16 years old - bought a 1968 Pontiac Parisienne - Craig AM/FM 8 Track and 2 6x9 Mindblowers in the parcel shelf. Factory cavity for the HU. Everyone else had there's strapped under the dash....

Every car since (20-25?) has had some sort of aftermarket audio system. Nothing too elaborate, but worthy. My focus was on home systems. Best home system was a Phase Linear Bob Carver designed autocorrelation pre-amp and matching amp. I can't remember the model numbers, but it rocked. We're talking pre-CD days here. Vinyl or magnetic tape only. I ran that through EPI Model 500 floor standing speakers. Still have those. Drivers have been replaced. Each cabinet has 2 12" passive radiators. It booms.

Started family in 1987. Stagnant for awhile. Kids are expensive and should be your first, top, number one priority if you decide to multiply. Anything else takes a back seat.

Returned to audiophile levels in 2001 or so. Internet helps tremendously. I now can also afford to drop coin on this hobby. Hookt again. My wife does the left to right pumpkin nod when a package arrives. She's just happy I'm not down at the local ballet studio inhaling ales a tossing bills at the performers like some of my buds.

My 18 year old son is into audio too, but like I was, financially impaired at this point. He gets the odd goodie tossed his way like one of my rides for the fancy dates. Yes, I could give him it all, but he has to earn it to appreciate it.

So I am currently collecting pieces for future systems. I have 6 cars waiting for audio massages. The Lincoln in my sigpic is original, mechanically perfect and has piles of room. I think it may get something outrageous....

HH

Home Audio - 1986ish Tore apart a console stereo in the basment and transfered the spakers into other cabinets, experimented with them for a while.

1989, was too young to own a car, but I bought car audio mags anyway, and started there. Profesionally in 1992, I didn't even own a car yet.

I have stepped away from car audio on several occasions. Owned my own shop for about a year and a half, now work for someone else, installing, would love to stay in it, but there just is not enough money for me to see a real future in this industry. I also think stepping completly away will enable me to re-ignite the fire and actually build my own systems.

I had my first system in 1991 with my first truck(crappy, but I was 16 and unemployed so what do you expect). Then I met a guy that competed locally for PG in 94 and he set me up with my first "real" system.

2X M25's powering 1 set of 5.25" Zero Points (still have) and 2 12" PG Sapphire subs.

For me it was about 4 years ago. I always wanted a system but never had the money. Then one day I just decided to go for it. I bought a Sony amp from a friend, and a MTX sub from CC. After that I started reading up on the forums and decided I owned crap, so I went after some good stuff. I'm still pretty much a noob, but I LOVE to learn about this stuff. I'm thinking my next setup might be worthy of a few pics for you guys. Who likes rare PG amps??!!

AVICJR wrote: Then I met a guy that.......

That scared me
In 92 a friend bought 4 12" Pyles and some junk ass amp. Knowing what I know today, I have no clue how it performed the way it did. Not that the brands are crappy but how it was installed/set up. Than another friend 2years later had a better system that blew me away, I wanted one then. When my grandparents had a grandchild born they put $1k in an account. On b-days you got $10 and at X-mas you got $20. When you turn 18 you got what was left, intrest and all. I got $890.00 Went out and bought the same subs that friend 2 had (12" Lanzar pros) and a Lanzar LXR360 amp. Wished I would've gotten the Opti 150. Been hooked ever since w/o even a thought of looking back. Now I install on the side and another friend has an auto body shop he's going to expand on someday where I'll be the installer. All high end projects. Overhauling meets Boyd C. Not the avg. kid off the streets.

I guess I tie with Hose head.

I built my first Car system in my 1975 Chevy van. It was a Kenwood " home system model KA-6004 amplifier with a RS remote control AM FM stereo receiver. And A Teac 7 inch reel to reel. I had 10 inch three way bookshelf speakers, B.I.C. Venturi 4's.
All being powered off of a DC to AC inverter located under my driver seat.

Yes I had ten's in 1975, when powered 6 X 9's ruled

I bought my first home stereo when I was 15 1/2 <I started working young>
So that would start my stereo fetish back in 1972 / 73.

1moreamp wrote:I guess I tie with Hose head.

I built my first Car system in my 1975 Chevy van. It was a Kenwood " home system model KA-6004 amplifier with a RS remote control AM FM stereo receiver. And A Teac 7 inch reel to reel. I had 10 inch three way bookshelf speakers, B.I.C. Venturi 4's.
All being powered off of a DC to AC inverter located under my driver seat.

Yes I had ten's in 1975, when powered 6 X 9's ruled

I bought my first home stereo when I was 15 1/2 <I started working young>
So that would start my stereo fetish back in 1972 / 73.

Holy hell man, that's before I was even thought of!!!!!

Holy hell is right.
Now that you know, I would expect all your sentences to Cecil or myself to end with, "Sir".
Am I making myself clear?

HH

HoseHead wrote:Holy hell is right.
Now that you know, I would expect all your sentences to Cecil or myself to end with, "Sir".
Am I making myself clear?

HH

Yes sir.

Errrr, about 5-6 months ago?

Yeah...

I mean, I always enjoyed Tom's stereos but I never had personal interest until I got my first vehicle.

well i got into it in 1984
had got my first taste from my dads friend who had two 6x9s in a huge box in the back of a 84 toyota tercel hatch...damn that thing soudned good.
alpine tape player and eq booster,

i started tearing stuff up and after a while my room became a speaker
dump. would look for old house speakers at garage sales and trying to make things slam, all in my room, well my mom wasnt too happy but she didnt mind, i was 8th grade.

my freshman year i started hanging with this older guy who was into cars.
so he used to hook me up with eq boosters and kraco 6x9s
then in my 10 grade year i really got my first tatse of car audio when on my birthday my dad asked me what i wanted and i said to take me to the local alpine dealer. i was memorized and decided that day that i want to have a slamming car...so through my highschool years i learned the hard way and just hacked cars and installed my way to a better installer.
i learned and by my senior year i was installing for all the rich kids and
got good at it...i went to the army and lived in texas, i went to a store called audio dimensions and custom sounds(which i think is still open)
i used to hang there and shoot the shit at AUDIO Dimensions all the time.
they used to letme go into the install bay and check out the cars
i started broadning my knowledge and became the barracks installer.
i finally picked up a nissan sentra in 90(which stayed home in hawaii) and decided to make it loud
my first system was a box that rocks 15 dual from rockford and alpine amps with alpine digimax highs....
was good but i wanted more. then one day i went into custom sounds and was shocked by this really beautiful amp(guess what amp). the
ms 2125 layed on the display calling my name...i bought it against my friends wishes(said for a 250 watt amp it was to expensive) i took it to my friends car back at the barracs who was running four 15s off a mtx amp. hooked it up and holy shit we were all like damn...................

took my amp back and next weekend bought my ms275 for my highs.
till this day i still have the ms2125 that i bought in texas.
when i got out of the military i took the amps and bought two rockford pro 15s. went home and figured out a way to fit 8 cubes into my trunk..hooked it up and fuck me that thing slammed...me and my younger bro got our asses chewed by my mom because it was vibrating everything around it..i was 21 years old. i entered a local sound off 6 months later and i owned guys running four 12s and way more power.


I did all of this in my garage
a year and a half later after many converasations with larry fredricks who was the guru of pg, giving me pointers about acoustics and physics i
applied at a car audio shop that just opened, didnt get the job but a year later and always owning all of the cars that they built they asked me if
i wanted to work there(that is where i learned about cars) the first 3 years we built cars that slammed and we were the number one shop
overall. as i got more older i got smarter and started to really learn
car audio..learning tricks on fabrication came on oour own becasue
hawaii dealers (outer islands often got overlooked for training)
by 1999 i was still the loudest street beater around and i still ran my pg amp, i then had borrowed my good friends ms2125 and had a second
ms275 i built the loudest cari ever had for street beater in my life. i ran two
18w6s in 10cubes in my nissan ran each ms2125 to each 18 and it was insane...sounded so tight and good and low.




sorry i can t find the other pics with amps but teh amps
two 2125 were layed out in a rack like a ms1000 right in front of the 18
and the 2 275s were flushed under the quarter windows one each side.
all panels were vinal wrapped and the boarders around the subs including teh rear deck was all paneled off in vinal..it was sweet.
i retired the system in 01 and got out of the bass game. (kids were getting older and i wanted to be more of an adult i guess.)
by 03 with the lackof support from the owner of the shop i watched
plumment(started in 01) i finally hung my hat in 03 and quit.
was so burnt out that i didnt do anything dealing with car audio.
i started my bmw in 01(those who saw my pics you gotta realize i did all that fiberglass in 00,01 that was very uncommon to see) and by that time was already depressed with my job and the direction that the store was going that i stopped working on it
then i worked at a mazda dealership in service untill 06 and that was hell.
more i didnt want to do anything with sounds. lost touch with stereos just would frequent forums and build little things for my friends.
invested into a shop my partner and i talked about for years (i hired him as an installer at the shop i quit)we offically opened jan of 07 and i dont
really install that much or hang there but when it really takes off
i will leave my current job at toyota to join him and really kick some ass here in this island....we want to basically do what we were never allowed to do at the shop we worked at before.

damn i typed more here then i ever did before. so i guess thats the story of my life.

aloha

smgreen20 wrote:

AVICJR wrote: Then I met a guy that.......

That scared me

What you talking bout Willis?

AVICJR wrote:

smgreen20 wrote:

AVICJR wrote: Then I met a guy that.......

That scared me

What you talking bout Willis?

I pitty the fool!

Home Audio Hobby, 1995 age 14

Car Audio Hobby, 1996 age 15

Car Audio Installation (For The Sound Buggy), 1997 age 16

Car/Home Audio Manufacturing (For Rockford Corporation), 2001 age 20

Ended Everything Other Than As A Hobby, 2003 age 22

I am proud of the fact I never started out in audio “ghetto” style. I owe this entirely to my best friend who coached me in the beginning, just as his cousin had done to him before. My very first sub was a Lanzar OA15, well before the time Lanzar went under and Pyramid took over. At that time, the Lanzar DC series was one of the best subs money could buy. My very first amp was a Rockford 4.6x. Neither of these items ever made it into my vehicle, as I did not even own a vehicle at the time, nor was I old enough to drive.

I went through a lot of subs and amps prior to my first vehicle, and my first personal installation. This first installation included a pair of PPI Pro12s, and a Rockford Punch 225.2, a Rockford 8115 deck, and Rockford Fanatic X components. If you really want to get technical though, I had an installation prior to that, which was just the Fanatic X components run off a Rockford Power 500.2 (250W x 2) amp. That is all. I have been a fan of good sound more than just bass ever since the beginning, and my concern has always been components prior to subs.

Both of those installations I had for only about a week each, then I sold the car. It was over a year until I started a system in my next vehicle (too busy with school, and never used the car).

Eric D wrote: My very first sub was a Lanzar OA15, well before the time Lanzar went under and Pyramid took over. At that time, the Lanzar DC series was one of the best subs money could buy.......

Lanzar Open Airs, cool. I had the Pros as my 1st 2 subs. The series before they switched to the DC series. Yes, the best money could buy back then.

For me it wasnt car audio then because I didnt have a car. It was the ability to sit on a woofer.. Im bass mad.

So in about 89 I had a couple of fane 10's that I fired into the top of an old wardrobe and used to sit in there bassing out

In 92 I got into fitting it for friends, 93 worked for loud wheels and the rest is history. The tib is the first car that I have fitted shit into that I actually own and drive lol.

wow doc your young..........i thought you much older.

brenzbmr@sb wrote:wow doc your young..........i thought you much older.

Young? I guess so. Me 'n Cecil was making pension payments when Doc's Mom sprawged him....

HH

Forever young, right Bruce ? C

BACK IN 93 WHEN I LIVED IN JAPAN AND MY GIRL HAD A SKYLINE WITH SOME CRAZY SOUNDS IN IT.. BOY I MISS THAT CAR....

MOVED BACK STATESIDE AND BOUGHT A 300Z AND WENT RIGHT TO THE SHOP AND GOT SUCKERED INTO ROCKFORD.. THEN MY BOY GOT SOME PG IN HIS CAR AND I WAS PISSED